


Of Hidden Truths and Coming Trials

by locrianrose



Series: Fire Emblem Fluff Bingo [3]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/M, Fire Emblem Fluff Bingo, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Unplanned Pregnancy, injury care
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:08:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28258974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/locrianrose/pseuds/locrianrose
Summary: His wife was a damned fool.Saizo was sure of that, and as he retreated to their room after they returned to Lilith’s realm, bandits vanquished, he was sure that he would find her there, and sure enough, he did.  Corrin was settled on the ground, half out of her armor, attempting to bandage her wounds alone.Saizo stood for a moment in silence, unnoticed by Corrin as he watched her. He stepped forward, making sure to make enough noise that she’d notice him. Her eyes shot up, looking at him guiltily as she struggled with the bandages.
Relationships: My Unit | Kamui | Corrin/Saizo
Series: Fire Emblem Fluff Bingo [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2024311
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Of Hidden Truths and Coming Trials

His wife was a damned fool. 

Saizo was sure of that, and as he retreated to their room after they returned to Lilith’s realm, bandits vanquished, he was sure that he would find her there, and sure enough, he did. Corrin was settled on the ground, half out of her armor, attempting to bandage her wounds alone. 

Saizo stood for a moment in silence, unnoticed by Corrin as he watched her. He stepped forward, making sure to make enough noise that she’d notice him. Her eyes shot up, looking at him guiltily as she struggled with the bandages. 

“I didn’t want to trouble the healers.” She insisted. “Rinkah took a hit, and she needed the help more than I did. I heal fast, you know that.” 

Saizo moved, settling down on the ground across from her and taking the bandages from her hands, setting them down on a nearby table. 

“You need to clean it properly first.” He said, frowning. 

“I did what I could.” Corrin replied. 

“If you don’t clean it, you’re going to need a healer no matter what you do.” Saizo extracted a scrap of cloth and dampened it from a waterskin. “Turn.”

Corrin slowly shifted, revealing the gash on her shoulder to Saizo. 

Saizo carefully began to clean the skin around it, wiping away the dried blood and gunk left behind from the battle.

“Why isn’t Kaze helping you?” He asked. “It’s his duty.”

“I told him I was fine.” Corrin said. “I didn’t want to trouble anyone.” 

Saizo frowned. He’d have to talk to Kaze and see why his brother wasn’t keeping a closer watch on Corrin when he was done here. It was a subject that he’d never needed to broach before, but in the past few weeks it had become an issue. Saizo had spoken frankly to Ryoma the first time this had happened, and Ryoma had ordered Saizo to be sure to check in on Corrin after battles. 

“It’s not trouble for Kaze.” Saizo said, reaching for a tub of ointment Corrin had managed to pull out. She’d at least had it out, even if she hadn’t managed to clean her wounds properly. 

Corrin didn’t respond, and Saizo deftly dabbed on the ointment, covering the wound before beginning to wrap it. There were far too many scars on her back for a woman who should have been protected from danger. With the way their war was progressing, he worried that there would be more before it was over. Some were fresh, things that had happened when he’d known her and some he’d been there for, but others were older, some half faded, some too deep to ever truly fade naturally. Nohr had not been kind to her, and he didn’t understand why she still continued to care about the false siblings she’d left there.

“I’m worried about Azura.” Corrin finally said as Saizo finished his wrapping. 

“Why?” Saizo asked. Azura had been another individual he’d been wrong about— someone he’d suspected for far too long until she’d helped him when he’d been injured on the battlefield and he’d been forced to reconsider his opinion. She was a valuable ally and a friend.

“She’s been—” Corrin paused, fidgeting momentarily. “—Not well.”

“And does Lord Ryoma know?” Saizo asked. 

“She didn’t want me to tell anyone about it. Kaze’s been keeping an eye on her after battle.”

“She shouldn’t be fighting if that’s the case.”

“Azura told me that battle didn’t make it worse.”

“But you’ve told Kaze and have him making sure she’s well.” Saizo stated, understanding at least part of Corrin’s (and in turn, Kaze’s) reasoning. “That’s still no reason to not see a healer.”

Corrin was silent for a long moment as Saizo examined her for any other injuries, wiping a few scrapes with the cloth to be sure there was nothing in them. 

“I don’t want to use something someone else would need.” She said quietly, pointedly looking down.

“And if you fall ill?” Saizo asked. “If a wound becomes infected?”

Corrin exhaled. 

There was...something she wasn’t telling him, and Saizo wasn’t sure what or how to convince her to reveal it. Push too far, and she’d clam up or cry. Do the opposite, and she’d do something foolish and get hurt. 

Saizo wasn’t keen on solutions that weren’t immediate and straightforward, but he’d slowly been learning that with his wife, things weren’t always that simple, and if he wanted to help her the way she tried to help everyone else, he would have to try. He didn’t particularly like that fact, but it was how it was, and Saizo wasn’t one to give up. 

“I don’t want to see a healer.” Corrin finally stated, folding her arms. 

“Why not ask Jakob or Lady Sakura?” Saizo asked. He knew she trusted both of them, and her answer to this could help him narrow down what was wrong.

“I—” Corrin began, then stopped, and as Saizo shifted to sit at her side, he realized with alarm that she was crying. 

“Corrin, what’s wrong?” Saizo said as he placed an arm over her shoulders, pulling her towards him, thoughts racing. Was there something seriously amiss? Some problem that she was afraid of showing to a healer, something so horribly wrong that she felt the need to hide from all of them? 

Corrin moved, pressing her face against his chest, openly sobbing now. Saizo mechanically moved his hand across her back, trying to comfort her as he racked his brain, thinking of what signs he might have seen that could tell him what was wrong. 

Corrin grabbed his hand, tugging it down to place it on her stomach, and as Saizo felt the slight swell that was now there, the details connected in his mind, and his world shifted. 

She’d been eating less at breakfast, and she’d been focusing more on fighting with magic than using her dragon form— something he hadn’t understood from the sheer level of destruction she could achieve in that form as compared to what she could do with magic. The reluctance to see a healer had to be from the fact that if she was discovered, she couldn’t fight. 

“Does...anyone know?” Saizo asked, mind racing. Would the baby be born healthy? Would it be a boy, or girl? He’d always assumed that he’d have a son someday, someone to carry on the Saizo name, but what if it was a girl?

Corrin shook her head against him. “I didn’t know what to do.”

They’d been careful, most of the time, as Saizo was well aware that a war was no place to raise a child, but he was also aware that there had been times when, in the heat of the moment, they hadn’t taken any precautions.

“You shouldn’t have kept fighting.” Saizo said, frowning. Corrin’s sobs increased at that, so he tightened his embrace. “Why wouldn’t you tell me?”

“I—I’m scared.” Corrin choked out. “What if— if I’m not there, and you’re hurt, or if I’m not there to help and someone dies, or if Camilla, or Leo, or—”

“The army can fight without you.”

“But I can’t just go back to Hoshido.” Corrin replied adamantly through her tears. “You’d have to stay here, with Ryoma— and I wouldn’t be able to try again to save my family.”

Saizo had an unfortunate feeling that Corrin meant her false siblings from Nohr based on how she’d tried over and over to convince them to side with her and understand the monstrosities that country had committed, but even he had the sense to see that now wasn’t the time to push that issue. 

“You need to see a healer. You need to tell me who, or I’ll find one.” Saizo finally stated. 

“Jakob.” Corrin said. “Or Sakura.”

Her choices at least made sense. As little love for Jakob as he had, Saizo would easily admit that he was fully dedicated to Corrin’s wellbeing, and would fight for any of the Hoshidans in turn. Orochi seemed to have decided she enjoyed pestering Jakob, and as trying as Saizo knew her to be, if Jakob would tolerate her and she him, that had to stand for something. 

“Jakob won’t let me fight if he knows.” Corrin continued.

So Jakob would be someone he would _need_ to make sure was aware. An unexpected ally, perhaps, in keeping Corrin safe.

“I care for you, Corrin.” Saizo said. “But this is something that you can’t keep secret. You shouldn’t be fighting. I have to keep you both safe.”

He’d need to tell Lord Ryoma. That would be an...interesting discussion, and one he wasn’t keen on having so soon, but he would need to report to his Lord— who he was keenly aware was also his brother in law— what had happened. Lord Ryoma would undoubtedly agree with Saizo that Corrin would need to be kept safe, and Saizo knew that he would need help convincing Corrin herself to stay back. 

Any other time, this would have been something to celebrate, but now— Saizo understood many reasons why Corrin might be worried. True, they could find a place to secret Corrin away for now, but she was an important part of their effort as much as he wished she didn’t need to fight. 

Corrin didn’t seem to enjoy battle as much as he did, and where he found the thrill of a fight she seemed to only find regrets and a deep seated fear of killing. She would risk great harm to herself to prevent her companions being hurt, but after she always suffered. Saizo would have attributed that fear and distaste for battle to her being a woman, but after the thorough beating Reina had given him the last time he’d voiced his thoughts on women fighting, he was more inclined to keep his mouth shut. 

Be it related to her gender or not, Corrin wasn’t mentally prepared for the danger of battle, and if this would help him keep her out of a fight she wasn’t prepared for, Saizo would use it to keep her safe. Corrin fought to protect them all, and he respected her for that, but he saw how it hurt her now. He could never tell her to stay out of the fight otherwise as it wasn’t his place to tell a princess what to do, but if she was pregnant— 

“Shall I fetch Lady Sakura?”

“Once they’ve helped Rinkah.” Corrin said. “I’m fine for now.”

“Fine.” Saizo nodded. If that was all it took for her to listen, he’d give her the few minutes it would take to compose herself with him there. This would give him a few minutes to process what he’d learned, and then he would face this head on. 

But first…

“How long have you known?”

Corrin didn’t respond for a long moment, wiping her tears before speaking. 

“I’m not sure.” Corrin began slowly. “I wondered if something was wrong a few weeks ago, but I lost track of my schedule with everything that had been happening, and we were always on the move trying to find Ryoma so I didn’t notice till a few weeks ago.”

Saizo felt his stomach twist as he ran through the events and battles of the past few weeks and the risks she’d taken. If something had happened then, and he’d only found out when it was too late—

He had to protect her, and he needed to make her understand why she couldn’t be taking risks now. Obvious risks to a baby aside, Corrin would be in additional danger as well. Saizo didn’t know what he would do without her now, and the fact that he hadn’t noticed and she very well could have lost the baby, or worse, her, would undoubtedly haunt him. 

“You must let me protect you.” 

“What about Ryoma?”

That was, as always, the ultimate question for Saizo. Kagero had always been better at weighing the odds and taking the path with less of a cost, but Saizo had always been the one to do things as directly and quickly as possible to serve Lord Ryoma. Here, however, he wasn’t sure what was the right way to serve his Lord and his wife. 

Lord Ryoma would undoubtedly want him protecting Corrin, but Saizo knew that he’d sworn to protect Lord Ryoma with his life.

“I will find a way to do both.” 

Corrin nodded silently, some tension going out of her body as she did, and Saizo realized that this was undoubtedly something else she had been worried about as well. 

“You can go find Sakura now if you want.” Corrin said, her voice small. 

Saizo squeezed his wife tightly in his arms, then nodded. 

“I’ll be back soon.” 

Saizo carefully released her from his embrace, watching as she slowly began to sort the armor she’d removed. He would need to stop and speak to Ryoma as well, and what exactly he would say, he wasn’t sure yet. He stood, making his way to the door, turning back to look to her before he opened it. 

“Corrin, no matter what, know that I love you.” He could feel his face flush under his mask as he spoke.

“I love you.” Corrin nodded to him, and Saizo set about his new mission.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what it is, but I like Saizo. Dude is a dick to like half the people he talks to, and straight up "admits" he's sexist to Azura in a support, but I still like him. I married him in Birthright, and I found it pretty interesting to try to get into his head for a fic. 
> 
> I think the deeprealms babies bit in fates is dumb as I feel like the first time a lil pocket dimension you hid your baby in popped out a whole ass adult, you'd stop putting kids in them and maybe work on not having kids in the middle of a war, but I do think it's an interesting thing if it maybe only happened to one or two people and then people learned and stopped doing that thing. 
> 
> I might write more on this idea later, but I'll mark it as finished for now as this can stand alone.


End file.
